Fixing grammar in Python?

[Red Saum]

def lumberjack(name, pronoun):
	print("{}'s a lumberjack and {} OK!".format(name, pronoun))

lumberjack("Ashton", "he's")
lumberjack("Paris", "he's")
lumberjack("Sam", "they're")

How do I fix this little program? Right now, the name Paris will print to "Paris's" rather than "Paris'", which is obviously grammatically incorrect. How do I fix this? I assume I'd want to use an if statement, but I don't really know how to implement that into this little bit of code. 

 

EDIT: I think I figured it out, but is there a more efficient way to do this certain thing than:

 

def lumberjack(name, pronoun):
    if name[-1] == 's':
        print("{}' a lumberjack and {} OK!".format(name, pronoun))
    else:
        print("{}'s a lumberjack and {} OK!".format(name, pronoun))

lumberjack("Ashton", "he's")
lumberjack("Paris", "he's")
lumberjack("Sam", "they're")

 

[ScratchCat]

That is probably the best way. I doubt there would be a simple string method to deal with grammatical issues.

 

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Red Saum said:

EDIT: I think I figured it out, but is there a more efficient way to do this certain thing than:

 

def lumberjack(name, pronoun):
    if name[-1] == 's':
        print("{}' a lumberjack and {} OK!".format(name, pronoun))
    else:
        print("{}'s a lumberjack and {} OK!".format(name, pronoun))

lumberjack("Ashton", "he's")
lumberjack("Paris", "he's")
lumberjack("Sam", "they're")

 

One way you could make it a little more efficient is to use f-strings instead of .format(). An example:

def lumberjack(name, pronoun):
    if name[-1] == 's':
        print(f"{name}' a lumberjack and {pronoun} OK!")
    else:
        print(f"{name}'s a lumberjack and {pronoun} OK!")

lumberjack("Ashton", "he's")
lumberjack("Paris", "he's")
lumberjack("Sam", "they're")

Keep in mind this is a Python 3.6+ feature (A link for more comparisons) and there are some places where .format() is more appropriate.

[straight_stewie]

On 12/19/2017 at 4:34 PM, Red Saum said:

How do I fix this little program? Right now, the name Paris will print to "Paris's" rather than "Paris'", which is obviously grammatically incorrect. How do I fix this? I assume I'd want to use an if statement, but I don't really know how to implement that into this little bit of code. 

 

Actually, when dealing with singular nouns both " XXXs's " and " XXXs' " are acceptable. When dealing with plural nouns that end in s only " XXXs' " is acceptable.

Luckily, since both forms are acceptable for singular nouns, just always using the " XXXs' " form for all nouns that end in "s" will be technically correct.

However, it's not always the best sounding way. Unfortunately, no good solution for that exists yet.